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Owner Jed York says 49ers never told other teams to not sign Colin Kaepernick

You can assume the San Francisco 49ers weren’t a part of any collusion effort against Colin Kaepernick, if there was one, assuming owner Jed York is telling the truth.

On the second episode of Freakonomics Radio’s new “The Hidden Side of Sports” show, the 49ers were the focus. Different figures from the organization were asked about many different topics. Kaepernick came up, of course.

Kaepernick has been unsigned since he opted out of his 49ers contract. Kaepernick did so with the understanding that the 49ers would cut him if he didn’t opt out. Kaepernick has filed a collusion grievance against the NFL, believing there was a coordinated effort to keep him out of the league after he took a knee during the national anthem to bring attention to social issues like police brutality.

York told Freakonomics Radio that he has never said a negative word about Kaepernick to another team, and didn’t have a problem with Kaepernick kneeling.

Jed York supported Colin Kaepernick’s demonstration

York pointed out that the entire story with Kaepernick “spun out of control” with false narratives against him.

“It’s hard for me to see taking a knee – like, if you can come up with a community or society where taking a knee is a disrespectful act, like by all means show me,” York told Freakonomics Radio. “I feel like he tried to modify his position to be as respectful as possible during a very, very sacrosanct moment during a professional football game. And I think that the narrative sort of spun out of control.”

With that as a background, York said he wouldn’t have said anything negative about Kaepernick to another team.

“We had no negative conversations with other teams saying, ‘Don’t sign Colin,'” York said. “We wouldn’t do that with Colin. We wouldn’t do that with anybody.”

While there will probably be a lot revealed in the Kaepernick grievance case, it doesn’t appear the 49ers will be a significant part of it, if York is to be believed.

San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York said he supported Colin Kaepernick’s right to demonstrate during the national anthem. (AP)

Jimmy Garoppolo: I still text with Tom Brady

The 49ers have a new quarterback, of course. Another interesting part of the “The Hidden Side of Sports” episode came when Jimmy Garoppolo was asked about his former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Garoppolo wanted to set the record straight that there are no hard feelings between him and Brady, despite what anyone might say. Garoppolo said he, Brady and Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who also played with Brady and Garoppolo on the Patriots, still text each other.

“We always had a good relationship. Initially when I was younger, kind of like an older brother type of relationship, but as I got older and matured through the NFL, we became closer and we became good friends,” Garoppolo said to Freakonomics Radio. “You know, we still text here and there. Jacoby was a good friend of mine too. So, the three of us always were texting each other. Everyone said it was a terrible decision to have the same agent, but I think it worked out very well. Our agents look out for both of us, both of our best interest. But at the end of the day it’s the NFL. It’s a business.”